There is nothing worse than having sleep problems, maybe it’s not being able to drift off or problems with disturbed sleep but if you’re like me, it can really affect your day and sometimes leave
you feeling out of sorts for a few days.

Obviously I’m no sleep expert, but I do have people that regularly come to me for treatments that tell me they’ve had problems sleeping and friends and family also have these same problems, so it
led me to think what can I do to help someone who just wants a good night’s sleep?

The first thing I would suggest is turn off the TV!!! If you have a TV in your bedroom, turn it off at least an hour before going to bed or get rid of it completely, so your bedroom is a peaceful
room, without the distractions of a TV.

Next I would suggest a lovely bath before bed and to use products designed to enhance sleep or get yourself some lavender oil. Now a quick tip, oil and water don’t mix, so put a few drops of the
lavender oil into a small amount of milk and then pour into your bath. Lavender has proven qualities to aid relaxation and helps your chances of drifting off and milk has been used for thousands of
years for its nourishing properties for skin. You can also put a few drops of the lavender oil onto your towel, this works really well if your towel is also on a heated rail or radiator, but I
would be careful if you have white or very light towels as the oil could stain them.

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The next thing you can do is to mix a few drops of your lavender oil into your body moisturiser before applying or if you prefer add a few drops into a base oil such as grapeseed, for a really
pampering treat. I would suggest you don’t apply your product to vigorously use lovely long languid strokes to distribute the moisturiser or oil.

Lavender is the most used and most popular oil to aid sleep as well as for lots of other uses, but some people just don’t like the smell, so you can always use an oil that will help with relaxation
such as marjoram that has a herby fragrance or even jasmine, but do use these very sparingly and never directly on your skin.

My next suggestion I feel can be thought of as old fashioned but for me it works every time. Get a hot water bottle, every home should have one! Put it in your bed to have warm toes, snuggle up to
it, lay it under your neck and shoulders to ease muscle strain(put a few drops of lavender oil on it) I believe it helps create a feel good factor and the warmth promotes relaxation too.

My next suggestion can be used to aid sleep but also to help at any time with general relaxation, get some chill out music playing, keep the volume low so it’s not to stimulating, something that
has worked for me over the years is having a few albums that I listen to all the time when I’m on holiday, the feeling you get from relaxing on holiday, on the beach being warmed by the sun is
usually the most chilled out you’ll be from year to year, so try bringing it back once your home, from time to time play that music from your holiday, lay down and just imagine your back in that
place feeling deeply relaxed.

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My final tip, that might just help is breathing. I know we all do it all the time, but we don’t do enough of the really deep breathing to fill your lungs. One thing I always ask my customers to do
before any relaxing treatment is to perform abdominal breathing. When you breathe in push your tummy out, it’s easier if you place one hand on your chest and the other on your tummy, so when you
take a breath in, the hand on your tummy should rise up higher than the one on your chest. I also ask them to breathe in through their nose and out through their mouth whilst doing abdominal
breathing. There are lots of breathing exercises you can try, just do a search on the internet for some, another good one to look for is alternate nostril breathing, maybe try this after you’ve got
abdominal breathing working for you.

So I hope my tips will help, there are lots of other suggestions of course, but these are my tried and tested. Goodnight!!!

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